What is your favourite non-D&D adjacent fantasy RPG?

[timbannock]

Tales of Xadia, because it uses Cortex Prime, which is the best. And it happens to be better at running some D&D campaigns than D&D itself (any version), IMHO.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

Of those I have experience with, probably the SAGA Rules System from Dragonlance: Fifth Age (although I've used it for Ravenloft, Dragon Quest/Warrior, and Final Fantasy games).

Ones I'd really like to get a chance to play or run include The One Ring, Paladin: Warriors of Charlemagne, Against the Darkmaster, and Fantasy HERO.

Dragonlance SAGA for me too.

 

[Micah Sweet]

What is your favourite non-D&D adjacent fantasy RPG and why? By adjacent I mean any variant ranging from to OSR to NuSR like Shadowdark, also Pathfinder, Shadow of the Weird Wizard and 13th AGE.

Legend of the Five Rings (4th edition), Cyberpunk 2020, Classic Deadlands, and Marvel FASERIP are probably my favorites. For newer stuff, the One Ring (1e), Star Wars (FFG), and Star Trek Adventures. I prefer highly detailed settings and rules with a simulationist bent, but I.am flexible on the proportions of those things.

 

[aramis erak]

Oops. I read it as non-D&D D&D-adjacent fantasy.

As did I

Non-D&D-Adjacent: Pendragon and Legend of the Five Rings

 

[Fenris-77]

Prince Valiant!

 

[LordEntrails]

RuneQuest
I always liked how skill advancement was related to skill use and got harder the better your skill got.
Plus hit locations, that was cool

 

[Sacrosanct]

Outside of my own game, I think my favorite is Earthdawn.

 

[Voadam]

Honey Heist adjusted for D&D trope fantasy. I had a blast playing it as a rookie cleric, I love the rules light improv and riffing focus. The two skills are easily adapted to different things, and the easy adjustments from game experience. I actually don't like the lose mechanics, but that is easy to ignore and otherwise it is fantastic.

Warhammer 1e was a lot of fun to play and I understood the system and love the setting, but I consider it an OK system at best.

Shadowrun I love the setting and the magic and how you can custom build characters and the general street mercenary premise, but I find the system pretty impenetrable for actually doing stuff like shooting a gun, it just never clicked for me despite having played it for years in various editions.

White Wolf stuff (Vampire, Mage, etc.) Love the world building and their factions and powers and building characters and the magic and supernatural aspects of it and the story dynamics of their premises, but again for the core mechanics at the table it is eh.

 

[Desdichado]

I'm not 100% sure if I should interpret this as non-D&D adjacent in terms of system, or in terms of implied setting assumptions. From a system perspective, I rarely play non-D&D adjacent fantasy, but I've had a lot of fun adapting Dread to fantasy, believe it or not. In terms of setting assumptions deviating from D&D, I prefer games that do; in fact, my own homebrew does quite a bit. For published settings, I'd say the Warhammer FRP setting (I almost called it Old World, but that's a confusing and loaded term at the moment) is among my favorites, but I don't really love the system.

I also adopted Old World of Darkness Werewolf: the Apocalypse to fantasy once back in the 90s. That was fun too.

 

[Fenris-77]

Outside of my own game, I think my favorite is Earthdawn.

That’s a deep cut at this point. I love it.